Robotaxis operated by Baidu’s Apollo Go have been paralyzed throughout Wuhan, China, with passengers reportedly trapped for up to two hours. According to multiple media reports and social media posts, at least 100 robotaxis were affected due to an unknown ‘system failure’. The vehicles froze in dangerous spots such as fast lanes of roadways, raising safety concerns.

Baidu has not commented on the incident. Local police are investigating. Meanwhile, Baidu is one of the largest robotaxi operators in China and plans to deploy a fleet of over 1,000 autonomous vehicles in Dubai next year. This recent outage follows similar incidents involving Waymo’s autonomous vehicles in California.

The incident highlights ongoing questions about the safety and reliability of autonomous driving technology. As tech companies expand their robotaxi fleets, such outages may become more frequent until smoother systems are developed or glitches ironed out.